ST MOCHOEMOC, ABBOT - 13 MARCH

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN MARCH

Saints celebrated on the 13th of March

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

ST MOCHOEMOC, ABBOT 

Having been educated under St Comgal, in the monastery of Benchor, Saint Mochoemoc (in Latin: Pulcherius) laid the foundation of the great monastery of Liath-Mochoemoc, around which a large town was raised, which still bears that name. 

THE MONASTERY OF LIATH-MOCHOEMOC

His happy death is placed by the chronologists on March 13, 655. See Usher’s Antiquities in Tab. Chron. and Colgan*.

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)

*THE ENTRY IN THE ACTA SANCTORUM HIBERNIÆ (Colgan, 1645)

[Saint Pulcherius'] father's name was Beoanus ; he was a skilful artificer, and of an honourable family in Connaught ; but being compelled to fly into exile, he came into the neighbourhood of St Ita. 

She, hearing of his professional skill, and being anxious to make some addition to the buildings of her convent, requested him to undertake the work. He consented, on the conditions of receiving Nesse, the sister of the saint, as his wife, and also some land on which to settle. 

St Ita acquiesced in the proposition, and gave him her sister Ness to wife; and he, with great assiduity, applied himself to erect the buildings in the monastery of the saint. 

It happened, after a time, that in battle, whither he had followed a certain chieftain, Beoanus was killed; and his head, being cut off, was carried away a great distance. St Ita was, of course, very much grieved at this occurrence, particularly as she had promised her brother in-law that he would have a son, which promise was unfulfilled, as his wife had been sterile up to this time. 

St Ita went to the field of battle, and found the mutilated body of Beoanus, but, of course, without the head. She, however, prayed that it might be shown to her, and the bead, through the divine power, flew through the air, and stopped where the body lay before her; and the Lord, at the entreaty of his handmaid, made the head adhere to the body as perfectly as if had never been cut off, except that a slight mark of the wound remained ; and the space of one hour having passed, he rose alive, saluting the servant of the Lord, and returning thanks to God. 

After the return of Beoanus, his wife conceived, and she brought forth a son, as St Ita had promised. This son was Pulcherius, and he remained with the saint until he reached his twentieth year.